CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago man admitted in federal court today that he trafficked fentanyl and other drugs and attempted to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as ISIS.
JASON BROWN, 41, of Lombard, Ill., pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, one count of distributing fentanyl, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The firearm charge is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a maximum of life. The drug charge is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 40 years, and the terrorism charge is punishable by a maximum of 20 years. Brown has been in law enforcement custody since his arrest in 2019. U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland set sentencing for May 28, 2024, at 11:00 a.m.
Brown admitted in a plea agreement that on three occasions in 2019 he provided $500 in cash to an individual with the understanding that the money would be wired to an ISIS soldier engaged in terrorist activity in Syria. Unbeknownst to Brown, the individual to whom he provided the money was confidentially working with law enforcement, and the purported ISIS fighter was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.
Brown further admitted that in 2019 he trafficked fentanyl from California to the Chicago suburbs and illegally possessed several loaded handguns in furtherance of his drug trafficking activities.
The plea agreement was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice; Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; Justin Campbell, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago; and Larry Snelling, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Substantial assistance was provided by the Illinois State Police, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, Lombard (Ill.) Police Department, Addison (Ill.) Police Department, and FBI Field Offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn McCarthy of the Northern District of Illinois and S. Elisa Poteat, Trial Attorney from the National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section.